5 September, 2014
Novelty in design and novelty in arguments don’t always translate into the desired results in the IP world. Fresh from very engrossing Kiddie trunk cases, the UK High Court [(2014) EWHC 2845 (IPEC)] recently examined buoyant flying toys shaped like fish. Both parties devised and sold toys. The defendant sought to prove that the claimant’s patents were invalid. The particular...

22 August, 2014
Assignment of trademark should be registered within a reasonable period and if the trademark is not so registered before dissolution of the assignor company, the mark is deemed to have been removed or rectified from the Registry of Trademarks. Holding thus, while allowing the rectification application in respect of mark US PRO, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, placin...

22 August, 2014
The Indian Patent Office released the ‘Revised Draft Guidelines for Examination of Patent Applications in the Field of Pharmaceuticals’ on 12th August, 2014. Comments and suggestions can be sent before 2nd September, 2014. The draft guidelines discuss the approach to determine ‘invention’, ‘inventive step’ and ‘industrial application’ besides Section 3 on non-patentable invent...

22 August, 2014
Allahabad High Court has quashed the order granting injunction restraining the defendants-appellants (Apex Laboratories Pvt. Ltd.) from using the “green dot” on the label of the packaging of its product “Zincovit Syrup”. The court in this regard held that green dot inside a square outlined by green colour is a symbol for which copyright cannot be claimed by anybody as the symb...

28 July, 2014
The Bombay High Court on 26-6-2014 has held that only a society registered under Section 33(3) of the Copyright Act, 1957 (amended in 1994), can carry on the business of issuing and granting licenses. The plaintiffs (Leopold Café) had been served notices in respect of certain ‘public performance’ of copyrighted material by the defendant (Novex Communications).
The plaintiffs...

28 July, 2014
The US Supreme Court on 25-6-2014 held that in enabling subscribers to view broadcast of copyrighted content, using individual antennae, both elements of ’performance’ and ‘public’ were satisfied and such activity amounted to infringement. In the instant case (American Broadcasting Companies v. AEREO), the defendant transmitted content by means of individual antenna to subscrib...

28 July, 2014
The Bombay High Court on 15-7-2014 has upheld the decision of the Controller and IPAB to grant compulsory licence (CL) for a cancer drug. The court in this regard, considering the TRIPS Agreement, Doha Declaration and various provisions of the Patent Act, 1970, rejected the writ petition filed by the patent holder (Bayer Corporation). Submission that efforts to obtain voluntary ...

26 June, 2014
In Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, decided on 19-6-2014, the US Supreme Court held that the respondent patents – method claim were invalid. It reasoned that using a computer to implement the steps of process does not transform abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.
Third party mediated settlement – fundamental economic practice
The patents at ...

20 June, 2014
Reasoning that protection under patent laws is for a set of claimed elements, the Supreme Court of USA has on 2-6-2014 held that when there is no direct infringement, a person cannot be liable for inducing infringement. Also, a method patent is not infringed unless all the steps are carried out. Several steps in the process of delivering electronic data through Content Delivery...

20 June, 2014
The USA has called for ending the moratorium on complaints based on the non-violate clause in the TRIPS agreement. The Nullification of benefits clause or non violate clause (NV clause) as provided in Article XXIII enables a member to bring a complaint against another who has by any measure, which even while not in violation of WTO agreements, has nullified or impaired the bene...

20 June, 2014
An opinion and a judgement, on either side of the Atlantic Ocean published within a span of five days dealt with exceptions from copyright available to institutions when books – copyrighted or otherwise were digitised and made available to the public.
In the case before CJEU, the Advocate General opined in Case C-117/13 on 5-6-2014 that Member States may authorise libraries ...

11 June, 2014
The US Supreme Court, on 2-6-2014, held that the petitioner was not liable for inducing patent infringement when it required third parties (customer) to carry out certain steps of the process covered by the method patent of the respondent [Limelight Networks Inc v. Akamai Technologies, No. 12–786].
Both parties were involved in delivering electronic data through Content Delive...